Building Scientific Thinking in Middle School With a 10-Minute Bell Ringer

I don’t know about your class, but the first 10 minutes of my science class are pivotal—they’re instrumental to the trajectory of the lesson, and they set the tone for the rest of the period.

It’s not easy. My squirrelly seventh graders are amped up from whatever shenanigans they’ve been up to, and their spidey senses always seem to know whether I am prepared or not.

To transition all that energy into scientific thinking takes some creativity and real intention.

In the past, I used my bell ringer as a recap of the previous day’s work. And there is a lot of value in that. However, when I asked myself whether the review was building the scientific skills I was hoping to build in my students, my answer was... no.

Ultimately, I want my students to be able to do science, and that extends far beyond remembering content. I want them to be curious and observe, to notice things, ask questions, recognize patterns, make predictions, analyze evidence, construct explanations, communicate their ideas, and revise their thinking when new information becomes available. My original 10-minute bell ringer was not doing that.

A new Bell Ringer routine

So I started giving them things to investigate.

It could be anything: a picture, a short data table, a short video, an unusual object, a quick demonstration, or even a scientific statement or claim. It depends on what skill I want to have them practice—observing, graphing, note-taking, noticing, wondering, etc. Recently, we focused on graphs. I gave the students data tables to review so they could create their own graphs.

This is a breakdown of how I structure the first 10 minutes of my class.

Minutes 1–3

For the first three minutes, I have students think and work independently. Depending on what I give them, I’ll ask them one or two of these questions (any more inevitably causes confusion):

• What did you notice?
• What do you wonder? What questions popped into your head?
• Do you see any patterns? A repeating sequence?
• What do you predict will happen next? What makes you say that?
• What evidence supports your thinking?
• Can we revise the question and build an investigation?

Keeping the task small is intentional because my goal isn’t to squeeze an entire science lesson into a bell ringer (LOL). Instead I want my students practicing one or two scientific habits repeatedly.

I find that the independent thinking time is important, as is having them share with their tablemate, especially in middle school. I have repeatedly noticed that if I have students immediately begin discussing a phenomenon directly with me, the quickest or most confident students will dominate the group’s thinking, and then I have lost the kids who seldom speak up. Instead, giving every student a few quiet minutes first and then letting them talk to each other communicates an important expectation: You need to develop an idea of your own before hearing everyone else’s. I want each of them to remember that their thoughts matter.

It also gives every student something to contribute when the conversation begins.

Minutes 4–7

After students share, I have them start moving and talking. My school is huge on Kagan strategies, and one cooperative learning strategy I like is Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up. After students have recorded their initial thinking, I give the signal to stand. Students put one hand in the air and move around the room until they find another student with a hand raised. They high-five, put their hands down, and become partners. (A group of three may be necessary if the numbers are uneven.)

When all of the students have partnered up, I set the timer and give each student approximately one minute to explain their thinking to the other. Then we do it again about two more times: “Hand up. Find someone new.” Students move, pair with a different classmate, and exchange ideas again. The hope is that they encounter multiple interpretations of the same evidence and hear something different each time. And movement is engaging and fun.

Minutes 8–10

The last three minutes are set aside for the students to revise their original thought. They go back and reread what they wrote before talking with their classmates. I ask them, “What would you add, change, or clarify after hearing someone else’s thinking?”

Students might add an observation they missed. They might strengthen an explanation. They might change their prediction completely. That is exactly what I want.

I want students to understand that science asks us to revise our thoughts. I want them to value different perspectives, and I want to help them develop a healthy relationship with revision. I always tell them that scientists change their explanations when they encounter new evidence—that they are always identifying patterns they previously missed and developing alternative interpretations that better account for the evidence.

I want my students to become comfortable saying, “I used to think this, but now I think…” That’s scientific thinking at work.